FAITH – We are saved by faith in Christ
So far we have looked at ourselves and what the Bible has to say about our spiritual and moral condition. We have seen that the Bible says we are all sinners who cannot save ourselves.
Then we saw that while God is merciful and does not want to condemn us, He is also just and must deal with our sin. Sin must be punished.
Lastly, we saw that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. God born human and while He did not stop being God, He limiting Himself to many human frailties. He then allowed Himself to be put to death on a cross. While on the cross He took all of man’s sin upon Himself, and suffered the penalty of sin in our place.
Faith …
What Faith Is Not
- Mere intellectual assent, By this is meant acknowledging the historical fact, that Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins. That he was buried, and that on the third day He arose from the dead
- Temporal Faith i.e. Trusting Christ only for temporal things
- Travelling safety
- Health
- Children
- Financial needs
- Strength
- i.e. Only things relating to this life
- Joining a church
- Adding Christ to your personal righteousness (goodness)
- ‘One’ of the good deeds you must do ‘towards’ getting saved from the penalty of sin
What Faith Is
Trusting in Jesus alone for salvation
John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
The Lord Jesus is by His own words the only way to be reconciled to the Father (God).
As we have already seen, we cannot save ourselves. So there must be no thought of Jesus plus anything else. We cannot, nor do we need to, add anything towards saving ourselves from the penalty of sin, or reconciling ourselves to God.
John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:”
Almighty God has done His part in providing salvation for you through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus paid the penalty for your sin by shedding His blood for you on the cross. It is a completed work done by Him. In fact that is why, when the Lord Jesus died on the cross He said, “It is finished.”
John 19:30 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
All that remains is for you to respond to the Holy Spirit tugging at your heart, causing all of this to make sense to you. He is helping you understand your need to be saved from the penalty of sin. He pleads, be reconciled to God. John 1:12 (above) tells you what you need to do. Receive Him as Saviour. Receiving Him means accepting what He has done on your behalf.
Receiving Christ as saviour can be illustrated as follows:
Picture in your mind two chairs. You are in the one chair and the other chair is empty. The chair that you are sitting in represents trusting in yourself or your own ideas or religious views to save you from the penalty of your sin. It represents the works men do in hope of being forgiven. The other chair represents trusting in Christ alone to save you from your sin, and reconcile you to God. It represents the works He has done so that you can be forgiven. Receiving Christ is a matter of moving out of your own chair and going and sitting in the other chair. Effectively transferring the trust you have in yourself to trusting in Christ. If you want salvation trust Christ, if you want to go to Hell trust something else.
At this point, please take the sheet of paper that you wrote down your answers to the two questions at the beginning of this presentation. This is just between you and the Lord. Has your understanding of where you faith should be changed. Many discover at this stage that they were trusting in some or other good work, or standard that they were trying to keep. And now understand that their trust needs to be in Christ alone. That they cannot contribute in the slightest to the salvation of their souls and being reconciled to God.
Receiving Christ is transferring the trust from man made religions, philosophies and good deeds to the finished work of Jesus Christ. Receiving Christ is responding to Almighty God and turning to Him from other things and people, and trusting Christ to save you from your sin.
Will you receive Christ as Saviour now? He will save you from the penalty of your sin? He will reconcile you to God?
The Lord can see your heart and mind and knows whether you have truly received Christ or not. For your own comfort you may want to actually tell the Lord that you do receive His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That you trust Him to save you from the penalty of sin, that you want to be reconciled to Him and enter His family as his child.
You could say something like:
Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner before you. I know that I cannot save myself nor do anything that would contribute towards saving myself. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross to save me from the penalty of sin. That through believing in Him he reconciles me to you as your child. I now receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. My life is now yours, lead me and help me to follow you the rest of my life. In Jesus name amen.
Praying the prayer is not what actually saves you. It is believing with all your heart that Christ died for your sins and was buried and rose again the third day. God’s Spirit convinces you that what you have just read is the saving truth of God. Respond with your whole heart like a drowning man taking hold of a life line thrown to him. He takes it as his only hope and does not let go!
Romans 10:10 says, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
If you receive Christ the Bible says that you are now saved from the penalty of your sin, and reconciled to God.
1 John 5:11-13 “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
If you have received Christ as your Saviour, you are now part of the family of God. Almighty God is now your heavenly Father!
We welcome you to the household of God as His child. You can now say “I’M SO HAPPY TO BE SAVED!”
Please take time to write to us and share this wonderful news with us. We would like to rejoice with you and give you further teaching on, “What happens now?” The journey forward in the life of a Christian is the most fulfilling and rewarding life possible, as long as you live life God’s way. God’s way is clearly defined in the Bible and we would love to help you find your way to where you live with God in a life that He ensures is completely fulfilling. The Lord Jesus put it this way ...
John 10:10 “... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Please feel free to use the feedback form on right of this webpage if you have any questions. We are praying for all who read the gospel presentation! If you have received Christ we would like to pray for you by name so please drop us note.